Just a stab in the dark... this was my Grandpa's truck (on the right) taken in 1950.

I think it's a 1948 Ford F3, would have been green with white lettering.


Anything else you guys can tell me about this truck. I may try to find one and recreate it as our family is still in the drilling business, including myself.

 

Pretty sure the hood ornament isn't stock. Not sure of the type of info you are after but this may help: Hot Cars

That's quite a mess of fish on the stringer.

DW

 

Fortunately that's a pretty common aftermarket hood ornament, you can still buy them.

 

Well, that's a start.

F3s show up now and again. Take a look at oldride.com, there usually are some North Dakota listings by the guys in Minot.

DW

 

So is there any way to tell a 1948 from a 1950? I can only assume it's a 1948 or 1949, as the picture was taken in 1950 and the truck looks used. Kinda looks like there was another name on the door also, making me think he may have been the 2nd owner of the truck.

 

If your only view is that single photo - it isn't possible to discern an exact year, to my knowledge. Honestly, not sure it really matters. If you are after a survivor to use for your restoration, the exact year may not be your biggest decider - vehicle condition of available trucks would be more important.

 

The only differences between the three years are very slight. One you can tell from the picture is the wing window divider. Some had a stainless steel cover but I don't remember which years had them. I think '48 had them then they changed to painted ones or visa versa.

Also, if you're looking for a truck to restore save yourself some hassles. Find an F-2. F-3s have issues with their stock Widow Maker 17" wheels and rear brakes. The F-2 and F-3 are basically the same truck. Both have the same 8' Express box. If you're set on a truck just like the one in your picture you can swap out some F-3 emblems and no one will know the difference if you don't tell them.

 

We beat the stainless steel window divider to death in my grill color question thread. From a couple different service manuals it came out that up till July 1948 they were stainless after that black.
(also the debate over bumper and wheel color got mangled again in that from the same reference).

In the 49-50 vin cutoff thread I posted about five 48-50 F2-F3's from a junkyard in Colo (all Kansas trucks), not a single one had passenger mirror or tire mounted on the outside of the bed like that.

What do you know about the truck, was it bought in KS, sold in IL, titled in NE - anything more than the pic?

 

Unfortunately my Grandpa passed away a few years ago. To my knowledge, it was always a Kansas truck.

 

It's most likely a 1950. It's got stainless F-3 emblems on it. I did once find a very late 1949 F-1 with stainless emblems, but the hundreds of others were all 1950's. A lot more F-1's were produced, so it makes sense that they ran out of die cast F-1's before they ran out of F-3's.
Chuck

 

How can you tell it's a stainless emblem? Cast would have been chrome plated, I assume, just like the emblems on the 56 chevy I use to own and sold a couple of years ago. Yes, that's where CLSSY56 came from. I go by WingingIt74 everywhere else now....

 

Just by looking at the emblems from distance the stamped emblems aren't as crisp. The edges are smoother, the cast emblems have sharp edges. I like the cast emblems best.

 

I'd still say it's a 48-49... a 50, it doesn't look new in the pic.

 

I agree with Chuck, and thought the same thing when I first looked closely at the picture. Stu

 

I love these old time pictures. They're great to play with.